Priya Raghavan

Priya teaches essay writing to years 7 to 9, which in practice means paragraphs that answer the question, quotations that are analysed rather than dropped in, and conclusions that say something instead of repeating the introduction. Most of her pupils can talk about a book or a history topic perfectly well. The gap is getting that talk onto paper in an order a marker can follow. That part is fixable.

She marks every piece twice, once for ideas and once for sentences. A pupil might get strong comments on their argument and a blunt note about four sentences starting the same way. Then they rewrite one paragraph together, line by line, until it reads the way they meant it to. She uses the same approach across English, history and the odd geography essay, because the shape of an argument travels between subjects.

Priya reads drafts on screen as well as on paper, and she asks pupils to read their own work aloud, which usually finds the missing full stop faster than any correction from her. Her feedback lands in the progress report too, so parents can see what has improved and which habit is next.